<Begin Segment 15>

BY: All right. So you are now, you're forced to leave Seattle and go to Puyallup. Do you remember the trip to Puyallup and what do you remember about that day as far as getting to Puyallup and all that?

MK: You know, I don't remember anything about it. I just remember the bus coming.

BY: So it was a bus?

MK: (Yes).

BY: And where was it, where did you have to catch the bus, do you remember that?

MK: No. I just followed wherever the family went.

BY: Do you remember carrying a suitcase? No, okay. And so get to Puyallup. Do you remember what your first impression was when you got there?

MK: Well, we got... we were in Area D, which was the fairgrounds. So the Dipper is there, and I thought, wow. I remember I was so happy, seeing that.

BY: But you didn't get to ride in it?

MK: No. [Laughs]

BY: And so you were kind of excited about being there then?

MK: Yeah. Because I saw that. And in fact, I made new friends because...

BY: Oh, because Mich was not there. (She was in Area B).

MK: Yeah. So I became friends with Mich's schoolmate, Sally Tsutsumoto, Ben Tsutsumoto's sister.

BY: And describe where your family lived. So you said you lived in the area with the rides, but describe the place that your family lived, then.

MK: Well, it was a barrack, and we were all stuck in one room.

BY: And this is how many of you in one barrack, in one room?

MK: Yeah. Because one sister was gone when it happened because she had gone to business college before. Because my father said... another sister (Amy) pleaded with my father to let her go because they always said she was weak, you know, because she was four pounds (at birth). And so she believed that, and she played the role, too. But anyway, she went to business college. She was the only girl that could go.

BY: Which sister was this?

MK: Yeah, it was Peterson Business College.

BY: No, which sister?

MK: Dorothy.

BY: Dorothy, okay.

MK: And so she got to go. And so when the war, and just before the war broke out, she had graduated, and Mr. Peterson told her, "You're not going to get a job in Seattle, downtown Seattle." But he told her, "They hire minorities, Blacks and Asians in Washington, D.C."

BY: Wow, that's a long way from home.

MK: Yeah. So she came home with that news. And so my father, I don't know how, found out a family, Tamesa family, that had a daughter in Washington. It wasn't a family friend. I don't know how he found them. And the father, he asked the father if my sister went, if (his daughter) could oversee her stay, and he said he would do that. And so that happened just before the war (happened). So she was in Washington (and) we were two less, because my brother was in the service.

BY: Now, was your aunt and her child with you as well, or were they in a separate room?

MK: Oh, (...) they had a separate room, but we were in the same area because we were...

BY: Right, right.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.